Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is reportedly interested in leaving the administration to become President of the University of South Carolina. The New York Times reports that the former South Carolina congressman has expressed interest in leading the university located in the state capital of Columbia.

The federal judiciary has found additional funds to keep operations going for an additional week despite the partial shutdown. The federal courts will now be able to function through January 18.

Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman)

NEW: The federal judiciary now expects to have enough money from other sources to keep the courts largely business-as-usual during the shutdown through Jan. 18 (previously it was Jan. 11) — this is the latest from the Administrative Office of the US Courts (HT @hsu_spencer) pic.twitter.com/N2BU6n1gQg

Communities across the country are starting to feel the pain of the shutdown and many of the 800,000 federal workers furloughed, or forced to work without pay, have been collecting experiences under the hashtag #shutdownstories on social media.

We would like to hear from you if you are affected. What has the impact has been on you, your family and community? Tell us here. We will feature a selection of your contributions in our reporting.

Although it seems Trump’s remarks will be on cable news, there is a big difference between that and broadcast networks which are still determining what to do as Maggie Haberman of the New York Times notes.

Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT)

According to all our reporting, networks are still deciding this, have NOT agreed. White House is claiming otherwise and it isn't true. They may still end up agreeing, but haven't yet. https://t.co/QKujUlNwib

Former President Jimmy Carter has become the last living president to weigh in and deny that he urged President Donald Trump to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump claimed last week that at least one former president told him that he regretted not building a wall. With Carter’s statement, all four living former presidents have now denied telling Trump this.

The Carter Center (@CarterCenter)

Clarification from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter:

"I have not discussed the border wall with President Trump, and do not support him on the issue.” -- Jimmy Carter

The FEC maintains a page listing every person who has filed form F-2 announcing their candidacies. As of writing, there are 447 such individuals, 32 of whom declared before 2016 was over and 63 of whom declared their 2020 candidacies before President Trump was even inaugurated.

Politico reports that Trump has been turned down by two people whom he has asked to serve as his secretary of defense. Both retired general Jack Keane and former senator Jon Kyl of Arizona have reportedly told Trump that they are not interested in succeeding James Mattis in that role.

Kyl just rejoined the law firm of Covington and Burling, where he previously served as a lobbyist before being appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by John McCain’s death. He resigned at the end of 2018 and was succeeded by Martha McSally, the losing Republican candidate for the other Senate seat in Arizona. Kyl previously had served three terms in the Senate from 1995-2013.

"Schumer has notified the Dem caucus that he will vote against proceeding to S.1 because Senate Republicans should instead bring to the floor the House-passed bills to reopen the government" https://t.co/rZdSysZoKX

Democrats set up a Facebook group to try to falsely link Senate candidate Roy Moore to prohibitionists during the 2017 special election in Alabama.

The New York Times reports that the “Dry Alabama” Facebook group was created by Democratic activists in order to falsely tar Moore with support for making Alabama a dry state. (Currently 25 of the state’s 67 counties are at least partially dry with Clay County allowing liquor sales in two cities starting in 2016).

As the Times describes the effort:

In a political bank shot made in the last two weeks of the campaign, they thought associating Mr. Moore with calls for a statewide alcohol ban would hurt him with moderate, business-oriented Republicans and assist the Democrat, Doug Jones, who won the special election by a hair-thin margin.